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Team-Building Challenge #1

Challenge Instructions

Enrich your team with the gift of your kindness, wisdom or gratitude.

More than 500,000 people around the world have pledged to live their lives in 2015 by three principles:

Show Kindness and Respect

Strive for Wisdom

Practice Gratitude

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Why?

When working in groups, it's valuable to establish and remind each other about some principles for participation. Groups need to establish guidelines around how they make decisions, designate leadership, and establish and realize their goals. But there's also the fundamental question of how people fundamentally treat each other. We won't always agree with each other, but we might be able to stay compassionate and kind.

Challenge Complete

Enrich your team with the gift of your kindness, wisdom or gratitude.

As the teacher of the 4th graders at BJAMS I have been thinking about how we show kindness, gratitude and wisdom. I did talk to the class and asked them to individually think of a time or a way in which they showed one of these traits. All of the responses fell into one of 2 categories: I am grateful for my family and a place to live or I am kind when I help someone who is hurt.

While I do not discount these feelings, I thought I would instead post what I have noticed with my students since the beginning of the year. Since the beginning of the year, what I have noticed the most about the students in my class is their generosity and kindness. They are kind and generous when they, without hesitation, lend or donate things to each other, e.g. money, pencil leads and erasers. They are kind and generous when they remind me that we need to send more letters to a gentleman with stage 4 cancer - someone we have been communicating with since the beginning of the year. They are kind and generous when they want the students who are new to the class - new since mid-February - to take home one of the therapy balls even though the new students did not help raise the money to buy the new "chairs." They are kind and generous when they want to donate all the pennies earned in the good deed jars to a local animal shelter.

These are but a few examples of how the 4th graders at Bishop Marshall are kind and generous. I am proud to be their teacher and to be a witness to the growth and development that has occurred over the last year.

peace,

Mrs. Johnson

The above paragraphs were posted on the 4th grade BJAMMERS wall. I (their teacher) posted this because I wanted to tell what I have noticed about my students since the beginning of the year. Yes, it is coming from me the teacher, as opposed to the students. However, I wanted to share my perspective because I think that it is good to hear from the individual who observes the behavior instead of the individual who demonstrates the behavior.